Dosas! 😋 There are so many delicious varieties to explore. Let's talk about some of the most famous kinds of dosa, available all over India.

Paper Dosa 📝
Most dosas are incredibly thin, and the paper dosa is a prime example. Like many other dishes from Tamil Nadu, it's made from a batter of urad dal and rice. This batter is spread thinly over a hot pan and cooked gently until it forms a crisp, paper-like layer. It's often shaped into a cone शंकु (cone) and served with chutney 🥥 and sambar 🍲.

Other Dosa Varieties 🥚🧅🥔
Many other dosas follow the same basic procedure, with extra ingredients added depending on their name. For example, the egg dosa 🥚 is made by cracking an egg onto the cooking dosa, spreading it, and cooking it with a little oil or ghee.

Here are some other popular types of dosa you might encounter:

* Tomato Dosa 🍅
* Onion Dosa 🧅
* Rawa Dosa 🌾
* Vegetable Dosa 🥕
* Plain Dosa
* Masala Dosa 🥔🌶️


Have you tried any of these delicious dosas?

Murukku, a beloved snack 😋 originating from Tamil Nadu, gets its name from the Tamil word for "twisted" 🥨.

The dough is a simple yet flavorful mix of rice flour 🍚, urad dal, salt, water, and cumin seeds.

This mixture is then deep-fried in various twisted 🌀 and intricate shapes until golden and crispy. Loved across India, it's a popular treat for all ages!

Sambar is a curry just like dal, but what makes it different are the unique spices and vegetables used to prepare it. 🌶️

Sambar has a slightly sour taste due to its tamarind base 🌿 and contains a variety of vegetables. Some popular vegetables used are drumsticks, brinjal (eggplant), pumpkin, potatoes, and radish. 🥕🥔

One of the main ingredients that gives it its distinctive flavor is curry leaves. 🍃 This Tamil Nadu food accompaniment is served with almost all South Indian dishes like rice, idli, and dosa, and it tastes brilliant with nearly all of them! 🍚🥞

Uruttu Chammanti is the local name for coconut chutney in Tamil Nadu. 🥥
It's made with ground coconut, dry red chili (especially roasted red chili) 🌶️, ginger, and mustard seeds. It's served cold along with dishes like Dosa, Idli, and Vada. 🍽️
It tastes delicious, and the coconut gives it a flavor that perfectly balances all the other dishes. 😋

Idli and Vada, collectively save breakfasts for people who are late in the mornings, almost every time! ⏰ These Tamil Nadu food items complement each other beautifully and are total comfort foods. 😋 Idli is made with a mixture of urad dal and rice and looks like a small, spongy pancake 🥞 once cooked and is one of the signature dishes of Tamil Nadu.


Vada, on the other hand, is either doughnut-shaped 🍩 or round like idli and is prepared with fermented Bengal gram mixed with curry leaf, cumin seed, and mustard seed. The vada is then shaped and deep-fried giving us a crispy yet soft food served with sambar and coconut chutney. 🥥

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When moms are racing against the clock ⏰ for tiffins, Lemon Rice 🍋 is an absolute lifesaver! This Tamil Nadu dish bursts with flavor, offering a unique tang that pops in your mouth. It's super quick ⚡️ and tasty, plus incredibly easy to whip up!


Here's how it comes together: A simple seasoning of onions 🧅, tomatoes 🍅, curry leaves 🌿, red chilies 🌶️, salt, and lemon juice 🍋 is prepared. Cooked rice 🍚 is then added and fried with this aromatic seasoning.

For an extra crunch 💥 and to perfectly balance the sour lemon taste, some groundnuts 🥜 are tossed in. Serve this delightful dish with a side of chutney or a fresh vegetable salad 🥗, and enjoy!

One of Tamil Nadu's best sweet dishes is Paruppu Payasam 🥣. It's made by roasting moong dal lightly 🌰 and then cooking it in a pressure cooker 🍲.
Jaggery syrup 🍯 is added to the mashed moong dal and stirred until it's fully cooked.
It's then served with roasted cashew nuts 🥜, offering a truly rich and creamy taste! 😋

Poriyal is a lightly sautéed vegetable dish 🥕 made from shredded or diced vegetables fried in fragrant spices.

The recipe is a delightful fusion of frying mustard seeds, onions, and urad dal with your choice of vegetable, seasoned with turmeric, dried red chillies, and other aromatic spices, often finished with coriander.

In some regions, shredded coconut 🥥 is used to dress the dish, adding another layer of flavor.

Poriyal is typically served as a versatile side dish in Tamil Nadu, complementing a three-course meal alongside sambar/rasam and tayirsadam (yogurt rice) 🍚.

This popular dish boasts regional variations across South India, such as Palya in Karnataka and Porutu in Andhra Pradesh.

This is a staple meal during every auspicious festival of Tamil Nadu. 🍚 Besides the rice and sweet milk, the dish is cooked with ingredients like cardamom, green gram, raisins 🍇 and cashew nuts. According to traditional beliefs, Pongal is cooked in open space in the sunlight ☀️, as it is dedicated to the Sun God.
The dish has two variants—one that's sweet 🍯 another that's savoury 🌶️ which is served on banana leaves 🌿.
Pongal is cooked in a colourful clay pot 🏺 that's decorated with patterns called Kolam.

Paniyaram is a popular South Indian dish 🤤 that's made by steaming batter in a special mold with cavities. This versatile dish goes by various names across South India, like paddu in Kannada and Gunta Ponganalu in Telugu. 😋

The batter, similar to that used for idli and dosa, is primarily made from rice and black lentils. Chefs and home cooks have experimented with Paniyaram in many ways, making it spicy 🌶️, savory, or sweet 🍯, depending on their preference. The variations in taste come from ingredients like jaggery, chilies, or different masalas.

A unique pan with multiple small indentations is used to make Paniyaram. Apart from the names mentioned, it's also known as gulittu, gundponglu, ponganalu, guliappa, appe, and more! 🥳

Kootu is a semi-solid side dish made of lentils and vegetables. 🥣 It's most commonly served with Virundhu Sappadu, a combo of boiled rice, curd, rasam, poriyal, and pickle. 🍚 There are many variations of Kootu prepared in Tamil Nadu.

Poricha Kootu (or fried kootu) is made with urad dal and pepper fried in red chilies, cumin, and fresh coconut, all ground into a paste. 🌶️ Vegetables like snake gourd and beans, along with moong dal, are cooked separately before being heated and mixed with this flavorful paste. 🌿 The other popular variants of kootu are Araichivita Kootu and Araichivita Sambar. 🍲

Puliodarai, aptly translated as 'sour tasting dish' 🤤, is a delightful tamarind rice preparation.
It keeps things simple, with essential ingredients like dried coconut 🥥, lentils, tamarind (Imli), Chataka powder, olive oil 🫒, curry leaves 🌿, mustard seeds, groundnuts 🥜, and urad dal.
Of course, the ready-to-mix Puliodarai paste brings it all together! You might also know this dish as Pulihora or Puliyogare. Traditionally, turmeric powder 💛 is a symbol of auspiciousness, so this meal is often cooked for special occasions and offered to God 🙏.

Koozh is the Tamil name for Millet Porridge 🥣, commonly sold by street vendors. It's made from Cumbu flour or broken rice in a clay pot 🏺. While typically a vegetarian recipe 🥕, koozh can also be made with fish 🐟, chicken 🍗, and crab 🦀.

If fermented, the porridge offers a tangy flavor 😋. It's slowly liquified and mixed with onion 🧅, buttermilk 🥛, curry leaves 🌿, and coriander leaves.


Koozh is served as a side dish with raw onion 🧅, green chili 🌶️, pickles 🥒, mango spiced with pepper and red chili 🥭🌶️, and sometimes with dry fish gravy 🐟. This dish is a staple during Mariamman temple festivals across the rural areas of Tamil Nadu 🙏.

For Tamils, there's no better way to kickstart their morning than with Filter Kaapi! ☕ This South Indian filter coffee is truly unique. Hot water is poured over coffee grounds in a coffee filter. 💧 The rich coffee concoction that drips out is then mixed with boiling milk. 🥛 Sugar is added to taste. 🥄
This strong Filter Kaapi is traditionally served in two cylindrical cups. The upper cup holds the deliciously foamed coffee. 🌬️ It's then poured into another cup, known as a Dabarah, to ensure all the ingredients mix well and to help it cool down before you take a delightful sip. 😋

Want to know about Sundal? 🤔 It's a type of South Indian dish/salad made by roasting gram or black chickpeas. 🌿 chickpeas.

It's then served with finely chopped green chilies, ginger, and grated coconut 🥥, which really brings out the flavors! 🌶️ This delicious dish is also offered as a sacred offering in temples. 🙏
You can find a variety of Sundal in Tamil Nadu, each with different ingredients and flavors. 😋

Medhu Vada, popularly known as Vadai or Garelu 🍩, is a doughnut-shaped crispy and fluffy vada made from lentils.

This savory food is prepared by grinding split black gram, soaking it to make a batter, and then deep-frying it in oil in small portions.

To enhance the taste, ginger 🫚, onion 🧅, pepper 🌶️, green chilies 🌶️, and cumin are also added. Finally, it's served with Coconut Chutney 🥥 or Sambhar 🍲.